John Maginnis: A retreat would do Republicans good

When I attended Catholic High, the senior class each spring loaded onto buses and went off to a three-day retreat at Manresa House in St. James Parish. There we observed the vow of silence (sort of) while attending lectures, praying and meditating on the meaning and responsibilities of becoming Catholic men.

This summer, Republican legislators are planning a retreat of their own. There will be discussions and meditation on the opportunities and responsibilities of the GOP in its new age of legislative majority. Some prayers wouldn't hurt, either.

Silence will not be the rule - these are politicians - but leaders are hoping their gathering will not be as loud and rancorous as their last one in the bowels of the state capitol in the final week of the recently ended session. Recriminations flew over how some Republican lawmakers were being disloyal by allying with Democrats, which compared in my day to the risk to our immortal souls of cavorting with Protestants.

The spiritual challenge to the Republican majority is dealing with a distant yet controlling authority figure, Gov. Bobby Jindal. A faction of House Republicans, nicknamed the Fiscal Hawks, has rebelled against what they consider his unsound budget practices of relying on one-time money and contingencies.

Most Republican legislators accept using one-time money as the lesser evil to raising taxes or cutting deeper into higher education and health care. Either they think the governor knows best or they don't want to cross him and lose their allowance money.

To pass his budget last year, Jindal out-maneuvered the hawks by combining the votes of cooperative Republicans with the Democrats, who had nowhere else to go.

In a strange alliance this year, the band of hawks joined forces with the Democrats, including the Black Caucus, to form a majority that rewrote the governor's budget. They combined some judicious cuts with a tax amnesty program to wring the one-time money out of the appropriations bill. They also adopted stricter procedures to curb budgetary abuses.

What most upset mainstream Republicans, however, was that the hawk-Democrat alliance changed the rules to give Democratic caucus leader Rep. John Bel Edwards of Amite, a candidate for governor, and Black Caucus leader Rep. Katrina Jackson of Monroe, seats at an expanded negotiating table to write the final bill.

In the end, one-time money was limited, though not eliminated, and compromises were reached on new budget procedures. The biggest concession won by the Democrats was $69 million added to K-12 education, split between a modest teacher pay raise and the needs of school boards. The increase in base funding for education was the first in five years, during which time businesses have feasted on many more millions in new tax breaks. Education Superintendent John White called the pay increase the best thing to happen in the session.

For the state, the final spending plan was as good as could be expected and passed with only one dissenting vote in either chamber.

But what really steamed Republicans was that although they were in the majority, they were not in control. Senate Republicans say their House counterparts could have gotten the same deal had they banded together instead of hooking up with the Democrats.

Many of the same budget dynamics will be present again next year. What would mark progress for Republicans is to concede that the hawks had good ideas though flawed methods. From there, they could recoalesce as a principled majority that would deal with Democrats from a position of strength but without the heavy-handed partisanship that afflicts Washington.

Once they put away their toys, their perks and dwindling project money, and realize who really is dividing and controlling them, the Republicans could emerge to lead the house of the people, standing equal to the Senate and respectfully apart from the governor. A retreat would be a good start on forming a responsible, enlightened majority.

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John Maginnis: A retreat would do Republicans good

When I attended Catholic High, the senior class each spring loaded onto buses and went off to a three-day retreat at Manresa House in St. James Parish. There we observed the vow of silence (sort of)